Are You Praying?

Some people see prayer as a waste of time. "It doesn't do anything," some say. But the reality is, prayer does work. Even modern medicine has concluded that those patients who regularly prayed generally had easier times of healing and recuperation than those patients who did not. But that's not the point here. Prayer, for all of its mystery, for Christians, is a direct link to God. We do not need to burn incense and utter meaningless incantations in hope of getting God's attention or manipulating Him to come down to our level. Instead, Jesus taught us how to pray (see Matthew 6), and that when two or three other believers are gathered in His name, He is there with us (see Matthew 18).

Jesus taught a lot on prayer, and the importance of it often in the gospels. As Christians, we have something of a responsibility to be in prayer. Through prayer, we have fellowship with God, we worship God, we are nurtured by God, we depend on God, we open our hearts to God, we listen to God, we are led by God, and we grow in God.
Yet there are some who do not pray. They don't "see" any changes in their lives. They don't get what they want. Well, with an understanding and practice of prayer like that, I tend to agree, except to word it like this: prayer that's based on my own selfishness, and my attempts to manipulate God don't work. Prayer is ultimately about our own humility. When we pray to God and bear our hearts before Him, we humble ourselves. We are admitting that we need Him. We are admitting that we don't know something. We are facing the fact that He is God, and we are not. Prayer is also humbling in another way. When we pray, we are putting our trust in God's goodness. This is probably the hardest part of prayer. This means that even when we have brought something of great personal importance, and are praying with an extreme personal bias, we must trust that God is in control (He is sovereign!), and that He knows what needs to happen. It means God has a plan. In prayer, we make ourselves available to the plans of God.

If you're struggling to pray (and believe, I know what it's like!), try this...use the acrostic ACTS. Adoration - spend a few minutes just praising God for whatever comes to mind. I always try to praise God for the beauty of His creation in all of its many forms. Confession - spend a few minutes confessing to God the sins you done (committed yourself), as well as those things you should have done (sins of ommission). This is usually far easier than I wish it was! Thanksgiving - spend a few minutes just pouring out your thank you's to God for all He has done - for you, for your family, for your friends, for the world. I always give thanks to God for each and every day, for another day of life, as well as for my great wife, and my wonderful kids. Supplication - this is an old word that we don't use much any more, but it simply means the requests we bring before God - prayers for ourselves and for others. One important thing that this acrostic does leave out is that we need to learn to listen for God in prayer. I'm not necessarily talking about hearing the audible voice of God, though I know of some who have heard God's "voice". Rather, I'm talking about hearing God in your heart, in a mysterious way that you just know. But often this only happens when we make ourselves be still and quiet before God in prayer. Another thing. It's always good to test what we receive in prayer with what the scriptures say, or with other, more mature and godly believers. Sometimes Christians will think that God is calling them to do something, but after checking with other Christians, or looking in scripture, they discover that what they thought they were "hearing" from God was not in line with what we know about God and His character. St. John says to "not believe every spirit, but test to see whether or not they are from God" (1 John 4:1).

When we pray with our focus on God and His heart, we will see changes. What they will be is anybody's guess. Maybe the answers will indeed be a "yes" to the particular request we've brought before God. Maybe it will be a "no". But I believe, that when you take a step of faith, and you pray to the Father in the name of the Son, your own heart will be changed. That's the ultimate purpose of prayer - to affect our hearts toward God. Keep praying!